The light fastness of the natural dyes

Tim Padfield and Sheila Landi

Abstract
Information on the light-fastness of natural dyes is reviewed. New tests on the fastness of several
dyes in fluorescent lamp light are reported.
Nearly all natural dyes have a light-fastness below BS grade 5. Most have a fastness below 4.
Nearly all natural dyes will fade badly during an exposure to 50 million lux hours of artificial light,
or to a much smaller dose of daylight. In many museum displays serious fading of most dyes would
occur in less than fifty years.
There is no very effective way of reducing the rate of fading. Ultraviolet absorbers over light
sources give a worthwhile increase in light-fastness to most, but not all, dyes. Low relative humidity
reduces fading. Display in cases filled with an ’inert’ gas benefits most dyes but accelerates the fading
of some pigments used on fabrics. Valuable textiles whose dyes have a light-fastness below 6 should
not be permanently displayed.

This is a digital version of the article first published in Studies in Conservation, volume 11, 1966,
181 – 196. Each page is reproduced as a picture. Some colour pictures are added at the end of this
version, made in March 2005.
Figure 4: A continuation of figure 1 in the main text. This picture shows more dyes than were displayed
(in monochrome) in the original article. The blue wool standards are shown in the inset at bottom right.
Figure 5: On the left, the screening method used to fade the dyes shown in figure 1. On the right is Sheila
Landi preparing a dye bath.

Figure 6: The effect of modifying the normal environment. On the left, a set of dyes shows the influence
of radiant wavelength. The rightmost three small patches of each dye are faded in radiation from the
fluorescent lamp, D, under a UV filter, E, and under both a UV and an orange filter, F. Fading under this
light source is mainly caused by the blue to yellow part of the visible spectrum, between 400 and 550 nm.
On the right: exposure while enclosed in nitrogen does not prevent fading of turmeric but is protective of
brazilwood.